Structural color is frequently exploited by living organisms for biological functions and has also been translated into synthetic materials as a more durable and less hazardous alternative to conventional pigments. Additive manufacturing approaches were recently exploited for the fabrication of exquisite photonic objects, but the angle-dependence observed limits a broader application of structural color in synthetic systems. Here, we propose a manufacturing platform for the 3D printing of complex-shaped objects that display isotropic structural color generated from photonic colloidal glasses. Structurally colored objects are printed from aqueous colloidal inks containing monodisperse silica particles, carbon black and a gel-forming copolymer. Rheology and Small-Angle-X-Ray-Scattering measurements are performed to identify the processing conditions leading to printed objects with tunable structural colors. Multimaterial printing is eventually used to create complex-shaped objects with multiple structural colors using silica and carbon as abundant and sustainable building blocks.

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Bio

Ahmet studied Chemistry at the Bilkent University of Ankara. He completed a master's degree at the same institute with a direction of Materials Chemistry and moved to the Netherlands for his PhD in the "Soft Condensed Matter" group of Alfons van Blaaderen at Utrecht University, where he studied the assembly of anisotpropic colloidal particles under external fields.

After his PhD degree he went to the USA for postdoc in the Grzybowski group at Northwestern University. In 2014 he started with an SNSF Ambizione grant at Complex Materials group of ETH Zurich, where he is a senior scientist now. He is exploring the world of colloids and soft materials with inspirations from nature.